Following an oversupply in the domestic market, banana prices in Taiwan have fallen as low as US$0.033/kg in some areas. This is set to strengthen after the Council of Agriculture Executive Yuan (COA) encouraged export and sales of the fruit.

Since April, steps have been taken to increase prices by reducing supply to the domestic market and filtering our bad quality bananas, so they don’t negatively impact prices.

Deputy minister of the COA, Chen Chi-chung, told Focus Taiwan that arrangements have been made to sell fruit to major supermarket and hypermarket chains, and sales to private businesses have been stepped up.

He added that a deal was made to export 12 tonnes of bananas per week to the Middle East, starting June 8.

In previous years, wholesale prices would typically sit between US$0.50/kg and US$0.64/kg.

The average price of bananas at the local wholesale market at the beginning of June was around US$0.34/kg and is expected to rise to US$0.40 today.